


We know how to die for our convictions

by Hiniwalay



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: As a Southeast Asian, Colonial Mentality, Gen, It’s a different struggle than those from developed countries know, Politics, Post-Colonial, and will strive to channel them into a good fic, hurts a country, i have many feelings about this
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-08
Updated: 2020-06-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:41:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24598450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hiniwalay/pseuds/Hiniwalay
Summary: Decades of colonization have done a number on the Earth Kingdom. They’re free now, technically. But not truly. Or: The citizens of the former colonies are slaves to their own mindsets.Lee is not okay with this.
Relationships: Lee & Zuko (Avatar)
Comments: 34
Kudos: 87





	We know how to die for our convictions

**Author's Note:**

> You ever lived in a country that suffered 333 years of oppression and exploitation and then became an unwilling battleground for World War II?
> 
> Yeah.
> 
> I have _feelings_ about colonial mentality. C’mon, kababayan. Nasaan ang kumpiyansa niyo? ;-;
> 
> The title comes from a quote by José Rizal, writer and Filipino martyr under the Spanish regime.

Sensu does not come home.

Neither does Papa. Not truly, anyway. Gansu is a shell of the man he once was, and Sela is devastated.

Lee is... numb. Or angry. One of the two. He doesn’t know, doesn’t care.

One day, a foreign man on an ostrich-horse comes riding into their dusty town. It’s a familiar scene, but this man is not a bone-thin boy with a ghastly scar on his face. The cow-pigs squeal and snort when he trots into their farm. Lee and his father stand in front of the barn to stare him down.

The foreigner slides off his mount and introduces himself as a messenger from the Fire Lord — Fire Lord Zuko. He gives Lee a note, along with a sack of coin heavy enough to make Papa’s arms buckle under its clinking.

The note reads:

_Thank you for the kindness you showed me. Your family is part of the reason we now have peace._

_I heard about Sensu. I’m sorry._

Lee crumples the note up on the spot and makes plans to burn it later, but his family accepts the money. Lee wants to throw it all to the ground. He hates that they need it.

They watch the messenger canter away on his ostrich-horse. Papa heaves the sack onto their dining table, which groans under the weight. Mama counts. The amount of Earth Kingdom coin alone is no laughing matter. The rest are in Fire Nation currency. They don’t know the value of it. It won’t do them any good here, far inland as their town is.

The money as a whole, Earth or Fire, won’t do them much good in Guon, actually. Begging is the least their neighbors will do when they find out that their family has become rich overnight. The warning noise of the cow-pigs won’t stop a group bent on violence or coercion.

His parents decide they will go to one of the major trading ports. There has been a buyer nagging them for the farm which they can barely man, the farm which Sensu’s memory haunts. It drains them. They sell the farm. (The small pile of earnings join the money in the sack. It really isn’t a small pile, but the rest of the money makes it look insignificant.) Leaving relieves Sela and Gansu as much as it craters an ache in their chests. Lee is either numb or angry.

It takes a fraction of their plentiful coin, two ostrich-horses and an uncomfortable wagon ride, but they soon arrive along with their belongings and a lot of road dust at a port and former colony called Pi Hai. A bustling seaside city with a harbor, Pi Hai is alive with activity in the way that their parched Guon never was. There at the market, they find out exactly how much the Fire Nation money is worth.

It’s crazy. Lee doesn’t believe it. His parents buy a farm, hire workers, and enroll him in school as if to prove it.

* * *

There are many Lees in Pi Hai, just as there are many Lees all over the kingdom. Lee becomes known as Lee of Guon, and he finds that he prefers it that way. It reminds him of his roots. It means that he’s not one of them.

He doesn’t want to be. Lee will never be, not when the people here think the Fire Nation is the best thing that’s ever happened to them.

Numbness is awash with anger. Lee slams his textbook open, glowers at the crumpled note inside, and vows that his older brother’s death won’t be in vain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m still outlining this fic, and I’m afraid that my knowledge of history and politics is limited. If you’ve got any suggestions, discussion points, or reading recommendations, please chat tumblr @hiniwalay or leave a comment. I’m even open to betas or co-authors, in case you’re interested ;)


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